COMPREHENSIVE, INSTANTLY UPDATED INTERNATIONAL NEWS PORTAL WITH DEEP ANALYSIS OF ALL SOMALI RELATED AFFAIRS, SPECIAL ATTENTION GIVEN TO SOMALILAND NEWS.

Monday, September 10, 2012

A new Dawn and new beginning for Somalia

A new Dawn and new beginning for Somalia

By Ali H. Abdulla

It is indeed a great day for Somalia. A day on which it got rid of two abhorrent individuals with similar sounding names, and who many accuse of being corrupt and ready to even sell pieces of the country to the highest bidder. It is a suspicion confirmed by the UN Monitoring Group for Somalia in its latest report.

I would like to congratulate the new president of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud who looks presidential, sound presidential and will hopefully live up to the expectations of millions of Somalis all over the world. I met him nearly a year ago in Dubai in a function that celebrated the Unity of Somalia and he gave a talk that portrayed him as a man of vision. I can recall clearly that one of his acquaintances told me then that the professor was going to run for the highest job in Somalia. I am glad that he did and won convincingly without resorting to dirty tricks or bribery as has been the custom for a long time in Somalia.

President Hassan has the monumental task of rebuilding a shattered nation that was dictated to by regional powers and UN functionaries such as Mahiga, a figure that many Somalis love to hate and would like to see the last of in the coming weeks. I hope that the first presidential decree will be to declare as him as persona-non-Grata.

Whether the new Somali parliamentarians heeded the advise of the most candid Presidential Candidate, Salad Ali Jelle, who in his campaign speech asked the members to grab any bribes offered to them but to vote their consciousness, or whether they lived up to their oath of allegiance to Somalia and the Somali people, we should thank them for a job well done.

My first advise to the new president is to pick his Prime Minister carefully and ignore the cursed 4.5 formula and to take his time to find a person with whom he can have a good working relationship that is not marred by conflict as we have become accustomed to from his predecessor who sacked two Prime Ministers.

My second advise to him it to stand up for Somali Unity and to do his best to bring our brothers in Somaliland back into the fold. He also needs to avoid more bloodshed in Somalia and reach out to our young and misguided warriors who were led astray by extremist elements who imported alien concepts to our country. Reconciliation within the Somali family will help us get rid of the thousands of foreign forces in our land and get back our lost pride and reclaim our true sovereignty.

Finally, let us thank professor Jawari and his two deputies for managing the difficult task of electing a credible president. We are grateful to them for a well managed process that was not marred by angry parliamentarians slugging it out with metal chairs. Let us not forget our elders who spent many months away from their families to help us reach where we are today.